Polls show Ohio Senate race tightening

Ohio’s increasingly tight Senate race is pitting the man who hasn’t been around long enough against the man who’s been around too long.

New polling shows that state Treasurer Josh Mandel (R), who Democrats say is woefully underprepared for the Senate, is nipping at the heels of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who Republicans say has little to show for his almost 20 years in Congress.

For months Brown had a 15-point lead over Mandel in the polls, and few thought Mandel could put Brown on defense in a state President Obama carried in 2008. Yet slowly but surely, and despite a series of pitfalls that have earned him repeated rebukes from the local press, Mandel has narrowed the gap on Brown, aided in part by more than $6 million in attack ads from outside conservative groups.

“They’ve never overlapped, so it’s clear they coordinated,” Brown told The Hill.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday showed Brown leading Mandel by 6 points, while another survey by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling put Brown’s margin over his GOP opponent at 8 points. Mandel’s name recognition has increased significantly in both polls, suggesting he’s made a good impression as voters get to know him.

A Brown aide said it wasn’t surprising the race had tightened and that the campaign expected it would get even closer, but that Ohioans in the end would reject Mandel’s record as treasurer and his economic agenda.